Mistake #1. An ideal client is anyone with money who can pay you.

Well, of course just because someone can pay you doesn’t exactly mean they will. There are so many variables: the usual marketing backbone of product (or service), price, positioning for starters needs to be in place.

Reaching into their wallets yourself also doesn’t usually work, and might get you into trouble! The other side of this too is judging the ones you might think won't be able to pay, even if they are an ideal client. The truth is many people have multiple avenues for funding if they really want to pay for something.

Mistake #2. An ideal client doesn't have to have money to pay you (they can get your service for free).

If you have created a product or service and know 5% more than someone else, then that product or service has value, and will probably sell for a monetary value.

The question then is, how much do you value yourself – and how much time went in to the experience used to create the product, including all the hours/days/weeks/months/years devoted to crafting your product or service?

There is value in what you have created and if this is the reason you’re in business then it’s important to make the value work for you to keep your business going. This is largely a mindset issue, getting into the minds of your customer in the right way and recognising your worth.

Mistake #3. Not looking at your ideal client in relation to the people you resonate with.

Connection with your customer is key. It can be the best product or service in the world, but if you don’t connect with your customer, there isn’t a chance of a sale! Mr Nowhere Man is a good metaphor for this.

Secondly, even if you are able to reach your customer, a shallow conversation is probably not what they are looking for. Your ideal client may instead want a deeper connection and to be taken on a journey as to how the product or service aligns with their hopes and dreams. The sales process manages this.

Mistake #4. Anyone who buys from You is an ideal client (note how this is different from (1) above).

Selling to your non-ideal client sometimes results in too many complaints, difficulties in negotiation and over-delivery to soothe an unhappy client. Generally the more you resonate and communicate with your client in a positive way, the happier your relationship usually is.

Mistake #5. My product or service can be tailored to anyone's requirements, all you have to do is pay me first.

This can be a dangerous trap, even with an ideal client and is common in project management. A clear understanding of what you are providing and what your client is receiving throughout the life of the product or service is key here. Terms and Conditions and Privacy notices are useful here.

Well, I hope that deepens your understanding of why it is important to know your ideal client, and avoid the common mistakes.

Want to know more?

Join our Facebook Group for more information! at http://bit.ly/BusTransform

Sign up to our Business Deep Dive Course right here at: http://bit.ly/BDD-L1

What do you do?

When people ask what you do, it’s important to tell people what the benefits are from talking to you. People buy into the benefits.

Do you say: ‘I’m an accountant’ or do you say ‘I help people save tax so that they have more money to grow their business.’? Do you say 'I'm a patent lawyer' or do you say 'I work with individuals to create the documentation to protect their ideas'?

You can try this too:

Step 1: ‘I help (or similar verb)

Step 2: ‘people’ (who do you help/ what do you help them with) – more specifically what types of people

Step 3: ‘so that’

Step 4: they save money (benefit)

Your ideal client will resonate with the benefits they can get from the results you can give them.

The Consensus Effect

In 2009 a pilot study was carried out for the HMRC (the UK's tax authority) to appeal to people's sense of civic duty.

One of the letters in the campaign read: 'Nine out of Ten People Pay their Tax on Time.'

This is a use of targeted strategic messaging wit a consensus focus. HMRC received solid results from this, and similar missives in its campaign. The HMRC's debt clearance rate rose from 57% in 2008 to a whopping 86% in 2009, using a similar sample.

Who are your serving?

To find the right networking event where you can find your customers, go to the networking events where other people are looking for solutions to the problems you’re trying to solve.

This may seem obvious but you’re looking for people to sell to you can start to help them by serving them first: give value to their important issues of the day asking 'What's critical to resolve in your business right now?'.

Then listen, give as much value as you can in the short time you have to speak to them to let them know how you helped similar clients, with case studies. Then make a follow up appointment to continue the conversation.

The Problem: Relentless changes in changing times. More to do. Less time. Reduced energy. No purpose. Oh, and the uncertainty of it all…

The Solution: What we now must DO, BE or SAY to HAVE results in this new world.

DO

Living on Purpose: Examining the detail of the current state of your business: looking at what are the employees and clients are saying and addressing these issues so you’re looking forward, not back.

From Employee to Entrepreneur: understanding and making a smooth transition at all levels for agile leadership: dance the dance.

Finding your Ideal Client and how that defines your business niche in greater detail.

Nail Down your Schedule for a stress-free week.

Solving Problems: from vicious cycles to virtuous cycles.

Practical 1-1 and Group Mentoring to overcome limiting beliefs.

Build Passive Income streams to make money while you sleep.

BE

How to align your business with your life goals to have more time and fulfilment in your life.

Behaviour Change through habits: how to change what you’ve always done to get better results.

Managing your energy to get more done.

Laser-Focused Scheduling for clear thinking.

Dealing with Stress: from fragility to resilience.

Going Deep: Exploring stuck areas to release old patterns or events that do not serve you.

SAY

How Clarity in your leadership message can turn the employee focus from ‘what’s for lunch?’ into real business growth.

From Employee to Entrepreneur: understanding why everyone is becoming an entrepreneur, what that looks like and how to brand your personal offering.

From Values to Value: Defining your results and communicating your value through marketing to obtain sales with less effort.

HAVE

Energy. What does energy have to do with it? How to work and optimise your energy and create massive shifts for the better in your business.

How to do Happiness, what it means and the benefits to your energy levels.

The Multiplier Accelerator effects of exercise and the correct eating habits and what this has to do with results for your business.

Direction and Purpose: how to follow your bliss without getting lost along the way.

Money – how to increase your prices, improve your service and have more free time.

Get Results in Human Innovation – unlock the Genie in your Genius. Align your staff with the company goals. Create and maintain alliances.

The Offer

We offer Business Mentoring, Leadership and Coaching for busy CEOs and business leaders to help you transform your business and sustain optimal business performance and growth. We do this through problem definition and solution implementation to address ongoing business issues. Defining and implementing metrics to measure growth are part of the process.

Welcome to Day 3 of the 5 day leadership direction challenge - What are your company’s Values?

In the last two videos we spoke about how to create vision and mission statements for your company.

Although it is easy to create such statements, the point of creating such statements is that some leaders are better at communicating these than others. Different company leaders have different personalities and the objective of communicating all these statements is to facilitate the work going on in the company at all levels. So, as a leader, these statements serve to facilitate the work going on beneath you.

At the end of the day, as we all know, leadership is not about knowing all the answers. Leadership is about communicating what we do and why, creating a clear picture of the company’s objectives to share with the company’s stakeholders – especially the frontline staff.

In a nutshell, Values equals culture.

Coca Cola defines values as the company’s behavioural compass. Core values statements play an active role in business practice and foster confidence and happiness in the employees who work with the values every day.

Coca cola’s values include having the courage to shape a better future, leveraging collective genius, being real, and being accountable and committed.

For the Build-A-Bear workshop, values like Di-Bear-City and Atta-Bear are life values as well as company values,” CEO Sharon John says, “They are unifying for our organization.”

LL Bean’s core values statement is clear: “Sell good merchandise at a reasonable profit, treat your customers like human beings, and they will always come back for more.

Do you have enough information now to create your company’s Values statement? If so, I’d really like to hear what you’ve come up with. Email us at info@businesstransformation.consulting with your new company values statement.

Join me for a journey to transform your business. Just click the link below (yes, that one right there, under the video).

We’ll show you how to work with your business and your customers to change and transform your company.

Next, we’ll be talking about How to Create your company Principles, so stay tuned by subscribing to our channel!

Welcome to Day 2 of the 5 Day Leadership Direction Challenge: How to create a Mission Statement.

Yesterday we talked about the company vision. We saw that vision statements are created by stepping out of the day-to-day thinking and looking into the future, and asking ‘what does our company look like 5 years in the future?’ A Vision and a Mission statement go hand in hand.

Do your employees know also where management are going in the business? Is everyone on the same page?

When we talk about a company Mission we talk about how we incorporate the strengths of the people we work with, and communicate ‘what is the journey in our company about’? A Mission Statement explains the company's (or department's) reason for existence. It explains how a company provides its service. It shows the employees how they can rise to the challenge of a higher aspirational level whilst aligning and flexing their own greatest strengths to harness the essence of the company to its best advantage so both the company, and its people can win.

A mission defines answers to the following questions:

What sort of work does the company do?

What level of service does the company provide?

Here are some good examples of a company mission:

GE is inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the world.

Mazda: To create new value, excite and delight our customers through the best automotive products and services.

Nike: To be the number one athletic company in the world

Microsoft – At Microsoft, our mission and values are to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.

Do you have enough information now to create your company’s mission statement? If so, I’d really like to hear what you’ve come up with. Email us at info@businesstransformation.consulting with your new company mission.

Join me for a journey to transform your business. Join our Facebook Group The Business Transformation Group. We’ll show you how to work with your business and your customers to change and transform your company.

Next, we’ll be talking about How to Create your company Values, so stay tuned by subscribing to our channel!

How do I create a vision for my business?

One of the ‘soft’ and often misunderstood areas of leadership direction comes from creating the vision statement of the business.

By creating a vision statement, it is possible to establish a picture of success for your business.

This, in turn makes it easier to plan for the future because thought has been put into communicating the company’s highest level strategic goals, even though they might seem wildly aspirational at the time.

Molding or shaping the look and feel of the company as it grows becomes more definite with a vision statement because there is a larger concept of ‘where we are going’ in the journey. A clear vision goes way beyond the effect of market mood shifts and defines the leadership direction of the company.

An excellent vision serves to inspire both the employer and entrepreneur, the employees and other stakeholders. A well thought out vision, becomes a beacon to navigate through the future course of the business.

A vision statement is never set in stone by those who write it. It can be rewritten to accommodate for flexibility of direction with the passage of time.

How to create a Vision statement?

The company vision is created by stepping out of the day-to-day thinking and looking into the future, and ask ‘what does our company look like 5 years in the future?’

When we talk about a creating a vision we are creating a picture of the concept of the best version of our company, once our plans aims and objectives have been achieved.

A vision statement is usually created by senior management.

Here are some examples of a company vision to show the characteristics of the company’s vision:

A vision is short and to the point for example Disney’s vision is ‘To make people happy’

A vision needs a central goal:

Errisson, the Swedish communications company have a vision of being “the prime driver in an all-communicating world.”

A vision is memorable:

Save the Children: Our vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.

Effective visions are challenging, inspiring employees to strive to reach a high, yet attainable goal, usually of national or international status for the company

Hello and Welcome to the 5 Day Leadership Direction Challenge to help you map out where your business is going for the purpose of good communication with your employees and stakeholders.

Is your business stagnant, are you stuck in a rut with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel? Are your employees thinking more deeply about lunch than their work in front of them?

A frequent cause of failure is a lack or inaccurate planning of a company strategy. Perhaps it’s time for a business transformation!

Business transformations, when done well, can have a profound positive impact on the company, its stakeholders and its ripples can be felt in the wider community.

A good business transformation will align your staff with the goals of the company, turn problems into solutions and offer significant top line improvement.

Hi, my name is Bonnie Harmon and I’m a Business Transformation Consultant.

I help companies transform and grow by harnessing and leveraging their hidden resources. I work with mindsets, mechanisms and processes so that the owners and directors can turn problems into solutions, increase return on investment, provide a happier and more productive working environment for their employees, and have more time and fulfilment in their lives.

In this 5-Day leadership Direction Challenge we will be looking at the 5 elements of

Vision

Mission

Values

Principles and

Purpose

These 5 elements will help you discover the importance of the message your company has for the world, incorporating your company vision, mission, values principles and purpose. Join our facebook group The Business Transformation Group to make sure you get the information on the first step to transforming your business!

Is your business stagnant, are you stuck in a rut with no apparent light at the end of the tunnel? Are your employees thinking more deeply about lunch than their work in front of them? A frequent cause of failure is a lack or inaccurate planning of a company strategy. Perhaps it’s time for a business transformation!

Business transformations, when done well, can have a profound positive impact on the company, its stakeholders and its ripples can be felt in the wider community. A business transformation will align your staff with the goals of the company, turn problems into solutions and offer significant top line improvement.

The traditional linear thinking model is based on a need for certainty. In these changing times, we see more and more how uncertain life and work can be. So we need a vision of how to live our best lives.

Simply click on the link below to find out about how to discover the message your company has for the world, incorporating your company vision, mission, values principles and purpose. Send us a message at info@businesstransformation.consulting.